Aiptasia set up shop in my zoanthids

[T Diddy]

A few aiptasia have parked themselves in the middle of on of my zoanthid colonies. How can I remove them without damaging the colony?

 

[innate1]

Mix up some kalk or pickling lime into a slurry with tank water and inject em. Works great.

 

[sqwat]

you see one there are many more like roaches berghia nudabranch worked wonders for me and then i passed them on to another freind.

 

[deadmeat]

AptaisiaX worked wonders for me once or twice. I just made absolutely certain that my current was off during treatment and up to 30min after treatment. Its a simple non-obtrusive way to get rid of Aptaisia with a few treatments and is not so expensive. I have tried pickling lime etc before but always had a problem with them doing the death spray and creating a larger population for me to deal with at a later date.

 

[sqwat]

in the long run you will need the nudis.i dont like puttin any of those chemicals in my water i like the bio way

 

[T Diddy]

Thanks for the replies. I'm probably not injecting anything due to the depth/accessibility issues. This particular colony has attached to two separate rocks. One of the rocks has a ton of aiptasia and I want to remove it. How should I go about this?? Cut the zoas with a razor blade and then frag from the removed rock?

 

[T Diddy]

in the long run you will need the nudis.i dont like puttin any of those chemicals in my water i like the bio way

I recently put nudis in the tank, but I'm worried about this zoa colony.

 

[sqwat]

I recently put nudis in the tank, but I'm worried about this zoa colony.

youre zoas will be completly fine berghia only eat aptasia.after about two weeks after i introduced the bergia i started to see the glass anennome's disapear one by one then all gone by the end of the week.and i had allot.once they lay and the eggs hatch they eatem fast if you got them from a reputable breeder who sent you adults ready to lay eggs.you should save one aptasia on a small rock to catch the nudis to give to another fellow refer i put the rock in a small glass or plastic cup with a lid and cur a few holes in it then sink it into a dark spot take out b4 all nudis finish and leave.you wont catchem all but a good amount the rest will keep eating aptasia till all gone and they wilt away.they are very small and will cause no spike and just disapear you dont see em much anyway.

 

[sqwat]

i no allot about berghia having used them more then twice so if you need any advice just pm me.it takes up to three weeks to see anything at all then is snowballs veryfast so you must be patient they do take time .people sometimes cant wait but it happens.how big is youre system?how many berghia did you put in?were did you get them from ?how old were they?and how many aptasia do you guess you see.also how did you aclimate them to the tank?did you put the container in youre tank by a crack in rockwork for them to go and hide?whate kind of fish do you have?if you answer these i can give you a good idea when you will be rid of aptasia.it is very important how you add them to youre tank cause forst thing they if you get adults is lay eggs to start and colonate.they like to do this in protected cracks and if cant find one he may lay eggs in bad spot and then not many hatch and it takes longer.very important

 

[T Diddy]

sqwat, pm sent.

Here are a couple of shots from the tank. The first shows a colony being saved by the berghia...I haven't seen anything pop back up, and the zoas are better than ever.

This pic shows the colony I'm worried about. It now has like 10 aiptasia growing in it. They are migrating over from the heavily infested rock on the left. I want to remove that rock, but the zoas are spreading onto it. How can I separate the two rocks without hurting my zoanthid colony?

 

[luvdiving]

Get yourself some peppermint shrimps, they will take Care of small aiptasias...

 

[KeiferTheReefer]

Get yourself some peppermint shrimps, they will take Care of small aiptasias...

+1. I put 2 peppermints in 2 days ago, and they devoured the 3 aptasia that were growing right in the middle of my Green Bay Packer colony. Only took one night, and they were fair sized anenomes (about nickel size).

Good luck!

 

[Bushman]

I tried the peppermints when I had the same problem. I think the aips were just too large, however. Then I tried the tilefish thing. He didn't work.

Finally after a suggestion from a friend, I got on the notification list and ordered a Tahitian butterfly from LA. Two weeks later....all aips gone! The Tahitian isn't the prettiest fish, but I am thoroughly convinced. Voracious (sp) appetite.

Hope this helps!

 

[tommy tomato]

dont do peppermint, they may eat your berghs... just be patient your berghias will get the job done.

 

[sqwat]

keep the berghia do not get peppermint shrimp they will turn on you and eat corals trust me then you cant catchem the berghia with do the job also they will eat the big ones .i think i see a couple of mojano's mixed in they are tricky but i think berghia will take care of them when hungry.i saw 4 small bergia eat 2 huge aiptasia in one night so when they are going and the only food they eat are aiptasia .them damn glass nems better run but they cant hide the berghia even the eggs of nems so once established the glass nems will be gone in 1 month i bet you cant find one unless its a mojano.

 

[heckfire]

why dont you want to use aiptasia x? its worked perfect for me

 

[A. Grandis]

Ok, my tips...
Take the zoas and any corals from the tank.
Get yourself a good size Raccoon Butterfly fish,
Let it eat the aiptasias and then exchange it when no more anemones.
Return zoas/corals to the tank.
Try to keep them in check with peppermint shrimps.
And good luck!
Aiptasias in the system will always be there. They're in the crevices and filters...

Grandis.

 

[T Diddy]

Thanks for the replies everyone. For anyone interested, I won't put shrimp in my tank for a few reasons, the aiptasia x type products are what created the huge problem I have, and file fish have already proven to me why they have that "guilty" look all the time. The berghias are making progress in the tank, but still haven't found their way into the zoanthid colony that I'm most worried about.

On a side note, I saw a monster berghia in the tank today...a solid, 1.5" aiptasia slayer. Some days I'll just happen to notice a berghia cruisin or eating. Today I saw several at once.

This guy:

These guys:

and these guys:

...were all having dinner at the same time. I did see a couple of other little guys, but the pics didn't turn out.

Thanks for the help sqwat :bigeyes:

 

[sqwat]

no problem bro you had the patients to let the berghia get all colonized and now just watch the aiptasia disapear.save a glass nem on a small rock to use as bait to get some of the berghia out and to pass on to a fellow reafer suffering the same prob.put small rock with aiptasia in a cup with just one entrance and put in every night o see how many you can catch.after all aiptasia is gone and all eggs are eaten they just dissapear no drag on youre system at all.Grandis never put a butterfly fish in with corals,pepperment shrimp start eating corals especialy sps,zoa's,open brains and dont eat all the aiptasia if they eat any at all and then you can never get them out.heckfire the aiptasia x or lemonjuice only get rid of the ones you can see if that worked for you feel lucky youre tank was never infested cause if it was you would no.im glas to see they are going down for you berghia nudis are the only way to get rid of them if you have corals in the tank it just takes time to get the colonized. never put a butterfly in tanks with corals and same with peppermint shrimp you might as well just tear youre rock work apart and kill some of youre corals every night cause thats the same you get when you try to catch the pepps or buterfly after they taste corals wich they will maybe not for a year or 2 but they will.were did you get youre berghia ? maybe help out someone else with some info.

 

[A. Grandis]

:thumbsup:
Way to go!!!
Good job! I'm glad it's wotking!!!!

Grandis.